Jurassic Rain
by SenseOfHumor
Summary: Two travelers seek shelter from the rain in a Lost World.


_**Wanted to dabble in the idea of a Post Apocalyptic Jurassic Park Universe, so I wrote a short look into the lives of some survivors. Little hints at history and world building are involved, but I didn't want to make any concrete backstory for this universe until I could properly construct one. I diiiid get inspiration for an earlier script of Jurassic Park 4 that never got off the ground, plus an element in the second novel. In any case, I hope you enjoy this!**_

* * *

May 13th, 2010-Salem, Oregon

Months after the Outbreak: 18

* * *

The rain was nearly tropical tonight.

Droplet armies of the heavens obeyed the will of gravity and fell in great numbers to the scorched earth. While the wind wasn't freezing in partnership with the rainfall, it still whipped this way and that over the earth. It was all that Rachel had experienced for the past hour and a half, just rain upon more rain. It slithered off the edges of her hood and worked its way down the rest of her jacket soon after, forming a sort of miniature waterfall on her person. The way it seemed to stack on top of each other made her surroundings seem blurred; as though a low fog had risen up to combat the hordes of water and instead just made things in her vision harder to fathom. The weather seemed to impede her movement as well; it's what occurred when the landscape around you was all soil. The near-desert landscape beneath her boots existed below a harsh and unforgiving sun for longer than the woman even knew; whereas now, it was a field of mud. How long had it been since the cracked dry land or the parched plants knew the feeling of a little water? How long had it been since she herself had relief?

She tensed at hearing a soft noise below the cannonade of the surrounding weather, her head angling in its direction in silence. Rachel let loose a breath she'd been holding when the noise sounded again, clearly a call of herbivorous origin-and therefore safe nature. With nature itself reverberating so loudly in your ear, it was easy to assume the worst of a noise you caught in the wind. She was still worried even after hearing the call-the rain could very well have distorted the call of something...much less friendly so that it sounded herbivorous. Despite this possibility and the idea of a danger being near enough to be within earshot, Rachel knew the rain would be enough cover to keep them from being noticed. Hopefully for long.

The muddy plane ahead of them, that had surely once been a dirt road of two lanes, made half-hearted attempts at slowing them down. A makeshift spear sat in her hand: the combination of a long metal pipe, excessive amounts of tape and superglue and welding heat connecting to a rusty harpoon. Aside from its defensive capabilities, she used it as an aid for walking sank into the clay of the ground each time she pressed down into it, mimicking how her boots lowered into each step she made. The waterproof flashlight and the infrequent flashes of lightning in the sky gave her a glimpse of the smaller body ahead of her, exerting greater energy to hike through the sticky area. Jessica's tired trudging wasn't a pretty sight to see; the woman knew that the energy-wasting walking combined with the lack of food she'd had for a day was starting to get to her. Rachel couldn't say she wasn't feeling a bit exhausted and starved herself. It was the aim of this little nightly walk anyway; to find something with food. If they were luckier still, somewhere safe to sleep.

Two minutes expired in the rain, then Rachel stabbed the hilt of the spear deeper into the mud so that it would hold itself up. After reaching forward to tap the kid's shoulder, her hands moved to form the appropriate signs. "Rest, " Rachel said as she did so.

Jess seemed less than enthusiastic about coming to a stop in the middle of the wide-open plains with impenetrable darkness surrounding them but grateful nonetheless. Rachel unclipped the small canteen connected to her backpack, deciding that now was a good time as any to refill or just drink. It took some angling for the water droplets to slowly fill it, but it eventually reached its halfway point and she handed it to her small company. Halfway through her drink, a rather close clap of thunder vibrated the air itself. The rain seemed to persist a little harder than before, turning their footprints into flooded pools of liquid mud. It was even harder to see around them now, even with the flashlight at its brightest.

Jess looked around slowly, swallowed and raised her hands to speak again. "I don't like it out here. ``she frowned. "What if a monster gets us?"

"Nothing is gonna come out in this weather, let alone come after us. Animals don't like rain either." Rachel explained, secretly hoping she was right about it. They were unpredictable, often doing things you wouldn't expect of other animals. "We'll be fine as long as we're on the road."

"I still don't like it out here," Jess remarked through her hands, then sneezed shortly after. "I'm tired."

The woman sighed through her nose. She had the materials to make a sort of tent for the two of them if they couldn't find anywhere to rest in another hour. But the risk was too great; sleeping in such an easily visible area could lead to the wrong kind of attention sooner or later. And if the weather became worse, they could face the threat of flooding. Even with all the reasons in the world not to, there wasn't any other choice. Rachel swore under her breath in frustration and glanced around, hoping she could spot some kind of hiding spot in the plains. It was then that she spotted the light.

She squinted down the road to see that a smaller path branched off in a leftward direction and in the far horizon that light flickered. It wasn't an overly bright light or anything special, but it was just noticeable enough to distinguish it from a star or just a longer flash of lightning. Something artificial, something big.

Wary as she was about this new option showing up so suddenly, almost like a miracle appearing just as it's spoken of- Rachel pointed it out to the young girl. Jess joined her in gazing out towards the flickering object in the distance, then looked back to give her adult company a skeptical look.

So it was decided.

It took another ten minutes of walking and them being soaked down to their socks, but they got close enough to find out what it was.

Half darkened due to the likelihood of dead lightbulbs within its lettering, Sophie's grandiose lettering perched ominously just beneath the edge of the brick-lined roof. The electrically elucidated title, crippled to the current condition it was in, was not the only sign of the age of this mega-gas station. Intense weed growth and slithering vines tangled together like spider webs across the concrete ground and walls. Some of the gas pumps were completely overrun and drowned with plant life, the only hint at their existence being their rectangular shape beneath the plants. If one looked past the jungle-like invasion, A number of cars were left to rust away. About seven vehicles or less littered the already buried concrete in their own unique positions, each one likely telling a different story. Most of the cars were right next to a gas station, as though their owners would hop out at any moment to pay for the gas. Some cars appeared to have crashed into the gas pumps some time ago, and one car was flipped onto the front windshield. Yet another car was halfway through the wall and the window of the station, with the heavy downpour now having easy access to the interior of the building. Small rivers snaked down it's a rusty orange frame, while droplets created an ambiance, not unlike the sound of rain hitting wind chimes. Clearly, water was not this building's ally.

In fact, the rain gutters snaking down from the roof's edge to the lowest corners of the embankments were absolutely gushing with gallons of rainwater. It was like someone had taken four hoses from fire trucks and fit them inside the drainage pipes, creating quite a mess of water everywhere. While it wasn't flooded, the concrete yard standing before the front of the gas station was deep enough underwater for one's footsteps to make light splashes. Old litter like shopping bags, soda cups, cigarettes, and a number of other things floated like miniature boats in the dark waters. Some areas of the ground looked more sunken, leading to some deep pools of water situated about the parking lots. An artificial waterfall was created from the likes of the station's elevated logo on a pole, pouring down more and more H2O. Were it not for the lights inside the building, Rachel would have thought the station had been drowned into uselessness.

But there were lights inside, as heavily damaged as they looked from where she stood some yards away. As tempting as immediately going inside looked, she needed to be sure that the surrounding area wasn't dangerous. Rachel made Jess stay behind while she checked the graveyard of cars within sight, spear ready to jab inside if anything moved. There was nothing of serious worth or danger inside the cars, thankfully. The most she'd seen was a human corpse or two, well into the final stages of decomposition, slumped forwards or backward. In only one body did she spy two of the small green ones nesting comfortably within the ribcage of a man, sheltering from the storm and staring at Rachel with tiny glinting eyes. The woman merely swallowed her bile and quickly backtracked to Jess. They approached the shattered glass doors of the gas station, and the older one of them once again instructed for the other to remain behind.

"This could be the most dangerous part. Bigger things could be nesting here. If something is here, I'll give a signal. You run without me, and don't look back." Rachel instructed with more urgent hand motions. "If you see anything out here, run to me. Okay?"

Jess shook in place, either from fear for Rachel's safety or the cold of the night around them. "Okay."

Rachel nodded, then slowly turned, her spear held at a good level as she pushed aside the sign reading 'permanently closed' and stalked inside the dilapidated building. If she could have made noise by stepping on broken glass, it was thankfully muffled by the foot of water covering everything. If she thought the litter outside was bad, it was nothing compared to the number of things left to float in this accidental swimming pool- there was a little of everything you could expect a mega-gas station to have. Trademark shirts, shoes, big coffee mugs, trash cans and more blocked her pathways. They were all relatively easy to move out of the way using the hilt of her spear, creating bordered pathways to this mysterious place. The more Rachel explored the aisles of merchandise geared towards tourists and the less she found to be of concern, the more she began to realize the good fortune of coming here.

The only real surprise came when her ten-minute search through bathrooms, aisles, Janitor closets, and security rooms finally ended with checking behind the cash registers. She'd dismissed the lack of bodies or blood quickly and was about to back out the way she can't when she spotted it. It was on a shelf just beneath the register itself, a relic hidden from the view of anyone on the other side of the register. The world seemed to slow down as she leaned down slowly, picking it up and examining it slowly from all angles.

A gun.

It was insane; how long it had taken for that to click for her. So much time away from the orderly civilian life and seeing weapons like these started to chip away at the memory of what a gun was. The sudden strength she had, the greater protection that she could give the kid against those things in the wild now, as opposed to her old spear, made her feel different. Rachel spotted the box of cartridges in the shelf foo and frowned deeper; perhaps she wouldn't use the gun yet. She would take it with her and maybe it could be useful defense later, but for now...a slow transition would be best. She took off her backpack, carefully settled the shotgun/shells inside and left the area with new findings. When she returned to the quizzical expression of the young girl waiting outside, Rachel smiled.

"You hungry, kiddo?"

* * *

In a world as oracular as one seen in fantasy books, a person would take as much treasure as they could from a treasure cave as opposed to staying within the cave for rest. Just as a knight would be wise enough to rescue the princess and depart as soon as possible, it would have been just as wise to take what was needed and leave again. But the weather was far from forgiving and farther from travel-worthy. That, combined with the fatigue of the past few days, left Rachel with little choice but to stake the gas station as a place of rest. Not permanently of course; she was lucky a sheltered place like this hadn't already been chosen for nesting grounds or just a den. Jess needed-deserved- to grow up in a place much safer than some old gas station with broken doors. Even so, Rachel and Jess managed to find mental sanctuary from what had become of their lives from things inside the abandoned building.

Firstly, they helped themselves to nonperishable edibilities within the many aisles, proving themselves to treasure troves for their long starved stomachs. Jerky from beef, venison and more worked as their main course, along with generous helpings of chips and candy that hadn't expired. As they finished off their food with bottled drinks, Jess timidly asked to take a look around the toy section of the gas station, to which Rachel gladly agreed and joined her. A little water fight was bound to happen when they found a set of different water guns on a shelf; the two of them trudging around the foot deep water in a slow chase or hiding behind aisles to wait for the other to come within firing range. Rachel was never more grateful to be alive than for seeing Jess actually smiling and laughing for the first time since traveling together. Rachel was pretty sure she'd smiled a little herself.

When Jess finally tired herself out, she sat somewhere dryer for a desert of a makeshift root beer float. Rachel, on the other hand, preemptively shuffled through things to pack away when they inevitably had to travel again. The store had a jackpot of good luggage types, ranging from simple backpacks to the kinds with two wheels. She used the biggest one to stuff more jerky and snacks into, then a slightly smaller one to carry a load of new clothes for them. It would be more than taxing to carry and painful to run with if need be, but it was a tiny price to pay in the long run. The young woman was finishing up her work when Jess came around, nearly finished with another bottle of sprite.

"Are we staying?" She asked hopefully. Thunder roared outside.

"Not for long." The woman shrugged as her hands formed the words. "Maybe a few days, if it's as safe as it looks. I'm just packing some stuff in case we need to make a hasty exit."

"...Do you think the monsters will come here?"

Rachel shook her head with a smile. "Not tonight. Too stormy for that."

It was finally time for a safe, well-deserved sleep after that talk. Inflatable beds were thankfully in stock next to the luggage selections, and the bathrooms were the only floors in the whole store to go untouched by water. When the king-sized bedding was inflated enough, she set it out of sight of the doorway in the corner next to a stall. Retrieving blankets and pillows was the last necessary thing to do before they were both settled into bed-Jess settled closest to the wall and Rachel closest to her spear.

The woman silently stared up at the ceiling for a while, listening to the noise of rain constantly hitting the roof and the rising noise of breaths that signaled a certain someone was asleep. Rachel cast a saddened glance in the direction of the tuckered out the child, likely one of many forced to sleep in places they shouldn't have to. If they were roaming in the direction of safer places, maybe this wouldn't have to be the way it was for very long. Perhaps they would soon find permanent rest for both of them. This current lifestyle was just another painful step to get there.

Thinking on that hopeful outlook was what allowed sleep to claim Rachel too.

* * *

It was still raining when Rachel woke up.

The weather hadn't stopped since she'd drifted off, not that time even mattered given that it was still night and dark out. A little less rain was plummeting than before, but still enough to create an audible noise. That wasn't what pulled her out of her light slumber, however. Nor was it the fact that an inch of water had flooded the bathroom floor from a leak in the awning. It wasn't even the loud crack of thunder that pulled her to the conscious world. There was a strange noise from beyond the doorway. A moaning noise.

The noise wasn't human.

The faintness of this auditory disturbance was starting to become plain-that meant it was coming closer to the building. The morning was no longer moaning, but rather a weak howling racket that repeated between brief pauses. It sounded like a pained animal.

Rachel cast a glance at Jess; still asleep. She reached and grasped the spear at her side, before carefully leaving the bed to creep quietly to the doorway. The position of the bathroom was close to the rear left corner of the building, prompting the woman to have to peer to her right. Though the noise insisted above the winds as well as the thrashing downpours, the source of all the beastly clamor was nowhere to be seen beyond the broken doors or the shattered windows. It was just too dark outside to see for sure. Her hands tightened around the stem of the spear, her breath held nervously in her throat and her heart rate rising from its calm state. The seconds felt like hellish minutes as she anxiously waited for something-anything, to discern itself from the darker background of the outside world.

Then, it appeared. Her eyes widened.

The _Sinoceratops_ dragged itself in with a weak bellow, dying out in a gurgling cough. Rachel finally blinked at it's large, muscular frame as it limped beneath the pale electric lights with an unsteady gait. It was like a Rhinoceros from the zoo she'd been to as a kid, but its head was all wrong. There was a beak where the lips should be, greyish-green skin akin to scales, only one large horn, a gigantic bony frill that framed the upper parts of its head and a thick reptilian tail at the end of its hindquarters. Its pebbled hide was painted with injuries; deep bloody gashes that marked several places on its body and oozed crimson liquid to the rainy floors. Closer inspection revealed a sickening realization-its stomach was torn open from the other side of its ribs. The intestines of the mighty beast trailed behind it like a soaking wet bag, a combination of the rain and the tremendous blood loss.

The Ceratopsid sneezed out a spray of scarlet. Soon after, its thunderous form crashed to the tile floor and the only signs of life left in it were the ragged breaths it produced. Rachel, against months of better judgment over situations like this, quietly crept out and towards the animal with her spear pointed towards it. A baritone sniffle was its only acknowledgment of her presence, thankfully deeming her too small and insignificant to waste its last energy on. The woman stood just feet away from its head and locked eyes with it, uncertain of what to feel about its impending demise. Though many like it had arrived with the first stage of doom for the world as she knew it, there was still a pity to be felt for it. This was the second time a dinosaur was brought to death's door and not a swift, painless explosion from an asteroid.

The animal's eyes became clouded, and it breathed no more. Rachel's hands relaxed slowly but surely, her spear lowering from its defensive position. Angry or not, she admitted it was a terrible way to go and sighed to herself. Pity for the creature's death soon turned to something more primal. A herbivore of this size would be a struggle to maul like this, even for a giant like a Tyrannosaurus. She raised her head slowly, to where the Sinoceratops had come from; the blood was so thick that even the rain was having a hard time washing it away from the earth. Something, or more, had been hunting it down.

A predator could be coming for it right now.

She rushed back to the bathroom, trying to make as little noise as she did so. It was only when she reached the bedside that she allowed herself to make noise, mostly through shaking the bed. "Jess. Jess, come on. Wake up."

Jess groggily blinked herself awake, shoving the blankets off of her as she noticed the flooded floor. "What's wrong?" She asked tiredly.

Rachel certainly didn't want to tell her that her worst fears could be coming into the building soon, but it was best to inform her of it. "Something's coming kid." She swallowed, looking to the doorway. She didn't hear anything unusual. "The bags are already by the exit door. We just need to leave."

To the woman's sadness, Jess suddenly became very awake for the wrong reasons. The scared child nodded as she climbed out of the bed and hid behind her tall companion. Rachel winced apologetically at her; she herself was hoping this would be a safe place for a long time. The woman crept to the doorway and found nothing frightening awaiting by the dinosaur corpse, thankfully. She was equally thankful that the bags were right where she left them earlier near the exit door; this would hopefully make departure a lot faster. She looked back at the corpse and-

"Shit!"

Rachel swiftly backed out of the visual range of the looming _Utahraptor_.

Back when everything was still working and society was intact, back when the world still belonged to man, the police made heavily frequent warnings for people to stay indoors at night since they'd had calls about vicious Velociraptor maulings. The News went into greater detail on them; describing incidents that occurred as more of them migrated into civilized areas. They explained their tendency to pick off lone hikers, to purposely chase them into the greater numbers of its pack. They explained just how sharp the teeth and claws were in comparison to tigers or military-grade knives. They detailed their size and looks, placing them around the height of an ordinary man and usually colored dark tones as a visual look for death.

But Utahraptors...had been more startling upon arrival.

A Utahraptor, on average, was an eight-foot-tall version of a Velociraptor with a higher metabolism-a more insatiable appetite. Entire suburbs had been evacuated due to the sightings of packs nearby, with even local authorities discouraged from attempting to attack them. They were underneath Albertosaurus on the Scale of Prehistoric Safety Hazards when the dinosaur threat climaxed. Velociraptors at least left a body to try and identify; you were lucky if their hulking cousins left a piece of you behind. And now there was one inside, just fifteen feet away from them.

"What?" Jess asked, frightened. "What is it?"

Rachel carefully peeked out. The Utahraptor wasn't even looking in their direction, but rather the large corpse lying motionless in the water. It was easily eight and a half feet tall, with the spinal arrangement of feathers making it look even taller than that. The animal's body was a rusty red with flecks of grey scattered around its ribs, or even in its feathers. Its two feet held up wickedly thick sickle claws that occasionally tapped into the water, with smaller ones on the end of each toe and finger. The predator's blood-soaked head bobbed in bird-like motions, like the curious movements of a jungle-dwelling cassowary, as it drew closer to its dead prize. Bulbous orbs of yellow with black reptilian pupils focused only on the prize before them, blinking at the hefty amount of flesh laid before it. The Utahraptor raised up, then threw its head back towards the entrance with loud coughs.

Seconds later, a quintet of shapes the size of geese waddled into the room. The Utahraptor chicks squawked quietly as they passed between their mother's feet, or moved around the carcass in awe. Covered in thicker fluff than what a duckling would have, their round bodies bounced with each eager step. When the mother gave a quieter chirp or two in response to their squeals, the chicks immediately began to dine on the hard work of their mother. As small as they were, they were adept at tearing off decently sized chunks from their food and swallowing it. Rachel blinked at the mother's attention placed solely on her children; this was the perfect time to make their escape.

Rachel turned to Jess, her hands making the appropriate signs. "Just keep very, very quiet and follow me. Do NOT look at them."

They set out when Jess shakily agreed. Rachel carefully stepped across the flooded floor towards the aisle closest to her and the exit. One step after the other, placed in suspenseful precision. The woman took the occasional glance behind her at both Jess and the present danger in the distance. She urged the kid ahead of her as the mother raptor tore off a piece for one of her chicks and raised her head in the air as a lookout. Just as Jess had passed behind the second aisle near the first, the mother's head snapped in Rachel's direction. A millisecond too late, she ducked down behind the first aisle.

The only sound was that of the chicks eating.

Seconds passed by like hours. Just when the woman was beginning to think that the mother had gone back to its original task, rhythmic disturbances in the water sped past her hiding spot. A few long seconds later, heavy breathing caused more disturbances in the water; evidence that the Utahraptor was investigating cautiously. Rachel nervously glanced in Jess's direction and gestured for her to move further away from her hiding spot and towards the exit. Another ripple in the water occurred, louder and closer than the others. The heavy breathing was horrifically close by now, a foot away from her head. Rachel's hands trembled as they tried to hold the spear tighter; would it even do her any good against it? Would it only ensure that her death would be more painful?

Something shattered far behind her, followed by the startled squawks of the chicks and the angry snort of the mother. The presence just near Rachel's head swiftly disappeared and the woman chanced a look to see what had happened. The Mother was snarling and sniffing at what remained of a jar of Salsa on the ground while trying to keep the chicks from exploring this sharp new disturbance.

Jess had thrown it-She'd thrown the jar and hid again where she'd been, thankfully. Rachel cautiously rushed over to her, and together they swiftly approached the exit door. As she'd hoped, the luggage wasn't too heavy, even with all the things stuffed within. With the mother still preoccupied, it would give them a little headstart to run when the noise of the door opening drew her attention to them. Maybe it wouldn't leave the chicks at all if it was the only parent there. Rachel physically counted to three for Jess and shoved herself against the door in a quick burst-

...right in front of another Utahraptor. This one was bigger than the other, with a black stripe in its feathers and a much taller stance. Its head whipped nearly 180° in their direction with a wicked gleam in its eyes, scaly lips parting to reveal bloody fangs in a terrifying snarl. The Bull raptor wasn't close enough to get to them before Rachel slammed the door shut, and it's head bashed against the metal frame in lengthy bursts. The metal was bending inward on the door; only so many hits were left before the door would be knocked off its hinges. Not that they even had that long.

The woman looked to see exactly she expected: The mother charging forward with an ear-splitting hiss. Its dorsal feathers were raised in the air like the hairs on a cat's back and its clawed hands reached out for the intruders before it. Jess screamed nearly as loud as the feathered beast, clinging to Rachel in absolute fear. Who knew what kept Rachel from being in the same panicked state.

Rachel had to think fast-both exits were now effectively blocked and there were dwindling seconds left before the mother reached them, with the male joining in soon after. Panicking and frantic, Rachel slammed her body into the door right after the Bull raptor had just given its most recent bash against the door. It opened up with an ear-piercing screech of metal. Not only did the Bull jump back in surprise at the figures barging past him, but the mother tried to turn in mid-stride and ended up barreling into the body of her mate. Rachel wasn't pleased by the noise of confused snarling and struggling behind them; that bought them a few more seconds at the most. Utahraptors could cruise at 65 miles per hour, and go much faster than that if they really wanted to.

The two kept running regardless, kicking up great waves of rainwater in their wake. The sounds of struggle from behind them ended abruptly, replaced by swiftly gaining footfall and angry snorting. Rachel, knowing that they both had mere seconds before two crushing weights landed upon their backs and forced them into the mud, came to a difficult decision. The woman whirled back around on her heel, shifting the spear around to face the massive predators. They both skidded to confused halts, as did Jess. Rachel didn't risk turning away her eyes or her weapon, but she used a hand to wave behind her. "Go! Go, Jess! Go!"

Jess didn't budge, glancing worried between her guardian and the hissing beasts in front of them. Rachel watched their eyes narrow and gleam even in the dark, their faces silhouetted by the glow coming from the old gas station. Steamed poured from their nostrils in angry snorts, and their soaked dorsal feathers remained in the air. Rachel waved again, this time looking behind her for the briefest of seconds.

"Jess! I said-"

The Female Raptor zipped behind her, prompting Jess to shriek as toothy jaws darted towards her. Rachel blindly swung around with her spear, drawing a red line and a pained car form the snout of the female. The woman had to swing her spear back around again when the male tried to dart at her exposed back, just narrowly warding him off with the sharp end of the spear. Shit. Jess didn't have any opportunity to run bow even if she could muster up the courage-not with one of them in front and the other behind. The rain pounded down on all four of them as they gazed at each other in silence and question. The raptors were clearly sizing up this somewhat dangerous prey item, cautiously using their intelligent brains to find a weak point in her defense. It was only a matter of seconds before they acted on their plans.

Jess hugged her leg tightly, and a stab of guilt flooded Rachel's heart. This wasn't how a kid's life should end, stuck with a stranger for a year on end, only to be killed viciously by two of the new world's more dangerous predators and promptly fed to their offspring. The world-life itself-wasn't supposed to be some Jurassic takeover. Rachel grimaced as the male Utahraptor lowered down towards the mud. It's leg muscles tightened in preparation for the killing pounce, claws and jaws open to ready itself for a deadly leap into the air-

The air vibrated with the far off roar of a _Carcharodontosaurus_.

Time seemed to stop once again as the animal's behaviors changed. The female and the male both looked to the North in cautious silence, eyes wide to scan their surroundings for the unseen beast. It could have been a territorial roar to signal an approach or a dying cry of pain, but Rachel only cared that it was distracting the predators. The female nervously warbled at a crack of lightning in the distance and reluctantly began to stalk past her mate and return to the chicks. The male, however, did not budge.

The Utahraptor growled violently in his throat as his eyes trailed back to the humans, drool dripping from his fangs. His teeth were all Rachel could stand to see; his deep red eyes filled her with primal fear every time she looked into them. The male slowly began to crouch down again, eyes returning to slits…

The Female Utahraptor, who had stopped at the entrance of the door, barked loudly. A hissing noise escaped the male as it reacted to her call, having to pull itself out of it's killing mode. The giant beast fixed them both with a stare that could have killed them more violently than his claws ever could, but his gaze turned away with his body.

Without looking back, the Utahraptor padded off.

It didn't take very long for him to reach his mate at the doors. Rachel didn't take her eyes off either of the predators until they disappeared inside the building again. Even then, she was only brought out of her staring stupor by the small hand of a little girl. Rachel slowly looked down at Jess, releasing a breath she didn't know she'd been holding during the entire encounter. The kid's eyes were tired-looking and still fearful, but her hands moved to speak to her. "We have to go."

As if on cue, the roar of the Carcharodontosaurus drew their eyes. Though the beast was not yet close enough to be a threat to them, this particular howl was drawing near. Rachel bitterly began to lead a path away from the approaching threat and the Utahraptor family, her tired body somehow finding the strength to carry forward quickly. As unfair as it was for humankind to suddenly be shoved into an unnatural world where death towered over their heads with toothy jaws, there was nothing to change what John Hammond's dream led to all those years ago. This was life now.

Jurassic Life.


End file.
